The next really significant step was made in 1674 (or thereabouts) by Gottfried Leibniz in Germany. Leibniz, a mathematician, physicist, philosopher, theologian, historian and inventor, had a dream: to develop a generalized symbolic language and an algebra to go with it, so that "the truth of any proposition in any field of human inquiry
could be determined by simple calculation." This quest was
unsuccessful, but he did invent the calculus and devise and promote much of modern mathematical notation.

On the subject of calculation, Leibniz wrote, "It is unworthy of excellent men to lose hours like slaves in the labor of calculation which could safely be relegated to anyone else if machines were used."